Aud Sentiments Challenge #12

Time for another fun challenge at Aud Sentiments. This week we are being sponsored by the fabulous Cutting Cafe and our theme is halloween!

For this challenge you may use any Halloween sentiment that you want. For the bonus challenge you can make a treat holder. I made a card using a round sentiment from The Cutting Cafe. I made a pleated circle to go behind the sentiment. These pleated circles are so easy to make and are a great way to add dimension to your project. The spider on my card is an old spider ring from several years ago. For my treat holder I used the long window box from the cutting cafe. I enlarged it 200 percent and it was just the perfect size to hold two Magic Wands. (See recipe below for my magic wands) I used a transperency sheet over the window in the box so my magic wands would stay fresh.

Directions for making my Magic Wands

For my Magic Wands I made caramels using the recipe below. I let the caramel cool slightly in the pan and then dipped pretzel rods in the caramel. I placed them on a greased pan to cool. (I have in the past poured my caramel onto my greased pan and allowed to cool slightly before covering my pretzels. Just wait long enough so that you can cut a strip of caramel and then wrap it around the pretzel. If you use this method, you don't need to worry about the hot caramel making the pretzel soft) Once they were cool, I melted a large hershey bar and dipped the pretzels in the melted chocolate. I then used sprinkles for some color. These caramel covered pretzels are one of my favorite treats. They satisfy my cravings for something sweet and salty all at the same time.

Recipe for Caramels

1 Cup Butter

2 Cup Sugar

1 Cup light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups chopped nuts (optional)

grease a 11x17 pan with butter. Melt 1 cup butter in saucepan. Add sugar, syrup and sweetened condensed milk. Stir constantly and cook until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy themometer. Mixture will be a pretty golden brown. Remove from heat and add vanilla and nuts. Pour onto pan and allow to cool at room temperature for 2-3 hours. cut wax paper into squares. Cut caramels inot 1 inch squares and wrap in wax paper.